Nothing exists except within the zeitgeist. We can't even enjoy a good sci-fi obsession without politics ruining everything.
I completely agree with Anijar’s assertion that the Klingons are, in a very meaningful way, a projection of our own masked, strategically buried, racism, our fear of the other. But it is also true that these others, including real-life stereotyped others, are projections of what we fear in our own natures. That, after all, is the definition of stereotyping: the gathering up of all that is repulsive in ourselves, rolling it into a convenient, sticky ball, and throwing onto some perceived other.
The Klingons, then, are also a Mr. Hyde to our Dr. Jekyll. And, I would argue, we need these allegorized versions of ourselves. It's an acknowledgment, even if a subconscious one, of the cruder aspects of our natures that does not threaten our sense of self as educated, civilized beings, selves we are struggling to become. We (men especially) have millions of years of aggression built into DNA. We are designed to see the Other as a threat. Our own bodies will not allow us "play nice" all of the time simply because 10,000 years ago our brains made the decision to live in the relative stability of civilizations. We need hockey, boxing, and Klingons to provide socially controlled spaces in which to act out our lingering, primitive drives.
The trick now is to find a way de-racialize and de-genderize these spaces. And we should expect more of an effort from the producers of our popular media.
I completely agree with Anijar’s assertion that the Klingons are, in a very meaningful way, a projection of our own masked, strategically buried, racism, our fear of the other. But it is also true that these others, including real-life stereotyped others, are projections of what we fear in our own natures. That, after all, is the definition of stereotyping: the gathering up of all that is repulsive in ourselves, rolling it into a convenient, sticky ball, and throwing onto some perceived other.
The Klingons, then, are also a Mr. Hyde to our Dr. Jekyll. And, I would argue, we need these allegorized versions of ourselves. It's an acknowledgment, even if a subconscious one, of the cruder aspects of our natures that does not threaten our sense of self as educated, civilized beings, selves we are struggling to become. We (men especially) have millions of years of aggression built into DNA. We are designed to see the Other as a threat. Our own bodies will not allow us "play nice" all of the time simply because 10,000 years ago our brains made the decision to live in the relative stability of civilizations. We need hockey, boxing, and Klingons to provide socially controlled spaces in which to act out our lingering, primitive drives.
The trick now is to find a way de-racialize and de-genderize these spaces. And we should expect more of an effort from the producers of our popular media.